A USPS truck drives through the Emory Brooke subdivision on Oct. 29, 2018. The new subdivision, still under construction, uses cluster mailboxes rather than traditional ones.(Photo: Chris Salvemini/News Sentinel)Buy Photo

As the U.S. Postal Service continues to lose money, it’s pushing for centralized “cluster” mailboxes in single-family subdivisions – not just apartment complexes – to save on delivery time and payroll costs.

It’s working through local planning bodies and contacting home-builders directly, urging the addition of cluster mailboxes as a requirement for development approval. But that’s not sitting well with some developers, who say it would add to their costs and make new neighborhoods less attractive to buyers.

Official USPS policy

In a "Builder and Developer Information Packet,” Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission got from the postal service's Tennessee district, centralized delivery in all new developments is described as official USPS policy.

Knoxville's Smithbilt Homes has installed one cluster box so far, in its 61-lot Emory Brooke subdivision at the corner of Emory and Cate roads, said developer Josh Sanderson. About half of those houses are already built, he said – and the postal service insisted on just one cluster box, no matter the number of houses.

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Cluster mailboxes are a short walk away from the Emory Brooke subdivision, in lieu of traditional mailboxes. The subdivision is still under construction as of Oct. 29, 2018.(Photo: Chris Salvemini/News Sentinel)

“They only allow us to have one location,” Sanderson said. “They said, ‘If you spread them out, we might as well just deliver to all of them.’”

Smithbilt is putting a 241-house subdivision in Powell, Tennessee, and that too will have just one cluster box location, he said.

The demand for centralized delivery as the only acceptable option came directly from the postal service, Sanderson said.

“They’ve mailed us, emailed us and called us,” he said. “It wasn’t a friendly conversation by any means.”

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Josh Sanderson of Smithbilt Homes holds the U.S. Postal Service instruction packet he received on installing cluster mailboxes in new single-family subdivisions.(Photo: Jim Gaines/News Sentinel)

The postal service has a responsibility to provide mail delivery to all parts of the country “in a fiscally responsible manner,” according to Susan Wright, USPS spokesperson for Tennessee. With the number of addresses constantly increasing, centralized mailboxes are the most efficient way to deliver, she said via email.

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Two cluster mailboxes are being used in lieu of traditional mailboxes at the Emory Brooke subdivision, due to a new USPS recommendation. The subdivision is still under construction as of Oct. 29, 2018.(Photo: Chris Salvemini/News Sentinel)

A postal service publication from October 2017 on “Delivery Growth Management” says the postal service delivers to more than 157 million residential and business addresses daily, and adds nearly 1 million new delivery points every year. That makes efficiency essential.

The postal service “prefers” new houses to have the most efficient delivery method, including the type and location of mailboxes, the USPS website says. Developers and builders “should plan” for cluster boxes, the website says.

Cost-cutting and complaints

The postal service’s desire for cluster boxes isn’t new or sudden, said Ashley Burnette, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Knoxville.

“It’s something that we heard years ago,” he said.

But over the last few months, USPS has set out specific guidelines urging planners and developers to start installing cluster boxes now.

A few developers Burnette knows don’t object, but most are opposed. And homeowners find cluster boxes inconvenient, he said.

“Most people don’t want to walk across a subdivision just to pick up their mail,” Burnette said.

Wright touted cluster boxes as safer for customers who don’t pick up mail daily, when combined with the Informed Delivery service, which lets registered residential users see digital pictures of their incoming mail.

“In situations where the Postal Service has not approved a delivery location or mode in advance, mail delivery may be curtailed until the situation is rectified,” she said. “We urge customers to avoid unnecessary cost and inconvenience by contacting their local Postmaster or the district Growth Management coordinator to establish or alter delivery service.”

But it appears the primary reason for cluster boxes is financial. The postal service operated at a $1.5 billion net loss for the third quarter of 2018, according to an Aug. 9 financial report.

The postal service relies on its products and services for funding; it gets no tax money for operating expenses, the agency says. Without major changes, net losses will continue, postal service CFO Joseph Corbett said in the news release.

“The root cause of our financial instability is a flawed business model that is imposed by law,” Postmaster General and CEO Megan Brennan said in the announcement. “We encourage the Congress to engage in a broad public policy discussion and pass postal reform legislation.”

The independent federal agency, which is specifically authorized in the U.S. Constitution, needs more flexibility in service, management and pricing, according to Brennan.

Burnette said installing cluster mailboxes reduces the amount of land developers can use for houses – not so much the box footprint itself, but the surrounding parking spaces, handicapped-accessible sidewalks and trails, landscaping and crosswalks.

According to Sanderson, the cost of building the cluster box itself is offset somewhat by not having to install 61 individual mailboxes; however, the bigger expense is building handicapped-accessible sidewalks to the box, extra landscaping and a crosswalk. If he added a roof, that would probably be an extra $1,300 to $1,500. There’s an added maintenance cost too, he said.

But the big objection is that a single, centralized box is less convenient for residents, Sanderson said. Some will have quite a walk from the far end of larger developments, and drivers may block traffic while stopping for mail, he said – causing the same safety problems the postal service argues that cluster boxes prevent.

Planners or enforcers?

Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission staff got a packet on cluster boxes from the U.S. Postal Service in June, said Gerald Green, MPC executive director.

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MPC Executive Director Gerald Green speaks during a Metropolitan Planning Commission meeting at the City County Building in Knoxville on Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018.(Photo: Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel)

“I understand USPS staff were adamant with some MPC staff that MPC's role should be that of enforcer of the centralized mail facility standard,” he said.

“At this time, it appears that developers do not like the requirement,” he said.

Scott Davis, president of Eagle Bend Development, ran into the issue in October when seeking approval for a 25-acre expansion to the existing Neals Landing subdivision. Adding a “centralized mail delivery system” was one of a dozen conditions Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission staff put on Davis’ application.

It was done at the insistence of the postal service, Green said. Davis objected, and planning commissioners approved his proposal to build up to 124 houses without cluster boxes.

“That was the first I’d ever heard of it, and all of a sudden it shows up as a condition for approval of a subdivision of mine,” Davis said.

He believes it’s out of MPC’s jurisdiction to require specific mailboxes on behalf of USPS. Further, Davis argues the postal service is legally obligated to deliver to a recognized address and standard mailbox. He’s seeking an opinion from U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, he said.

Alexander could not immediately be reached for comment by the Knoxville News Sentinel.

“My understanding is that some subdivisions have been required by USPS to install cluster mailboxes, but I do not know which ones they are,” he said. “Staff will provide information about cluster mailboxes, which has been provided to us by USPS, to developers, but we will not enforce USPS requirements in the absence of a clear mandate to do so.”

Those requirements haven’t been added to any local standards, so it’s not MPC’s job to mandate compliance, Green said. Planners will work with all affected groups to make the requirement “reasonable and realistic,” he said.

Many questions remain unanswered, such as whether developments of only a few houses will also need cluster boxes, Green said.

Details and implementation

Green provided the documents Knox MPC got from the postal service’s Tennessee District. In a “Builder and Developer Information Packet,” centralized delivery in all new developments is described as official USPS policy.

“Curbside, sidewalk delivery and door modes are generally not available for new delivery points, with very rare exceptions as determined by the Postal Service in its sole discretion on a case-by-case basis,” the packet says, citing the federal Postal Operations Manual. Delivery locations have to be approved in advance by local postal officials.

The packet includes detailed specifications on acceptable cluster boxes, a form for developers to consent to centralized delivery, and contact information for nine makers of USPS-approved boxes.

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The cluster mailboxes lie by the entrance of the Emory Brooke subdivision, a short walk away from people's homes. As of Oct. 29 2018, the area was still under construction.(Photo: Chris Salvemini/News Sentinel)

Loudon County, Tennessee's Planning and Codes Enforcement got the same packet as Knox MPC, said Laura Smith, Loudon planning director.

The postal service’s letter makes it sound like cluster boxes are a requirement, she said. The county’s subdivision regulations don’t address the subject, but planners may need to look at it soon, Smith said.

Cluster boxes haven’t yet been installed in any single-family developments Loudon County oversees, she said. Smith wants to get more information from the postal service, and isn’t sure if cluster boxes will be a requirement planners can or must enforce, she said.

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Residents either walk or drive up a hill to claim their mail, after the USPS requested developers use cluster mailboxes rather than traditional ones.(Photo: Chris Salvemini/News Sentinel)

In Maryville, Tennessee, the city's Planning Development Services Department got the same information from the postal service about three months ago, said Jordan Clark, the city’s principal planner.

“From our understanding that’s what they expect to have installed in newer residential subdivisions,” he said. No developments thus far have included cluster boxes.

“But I would say that’s probably coming pretty quickly,” Clark said.

Maryville’s planners don’t enforce postal regulations, he said, as that’s up to the post office. But they do want to make developers aware of the cluster-box push for planning purposes, if they’ll have to install them anyway, Clark said. He’s spoken to several developers on the subject.

“I haven’t heard anything good or bad or anything like that yet,” Clark said.

For now, planners are waiting to see how the effort works out, and what they might need to do, he said. But soon planners will have to discuss specifics, such as whether adjacent parking is required or where cluster boxes must be located, Clark said.

Maryville planners also wondered if large subdivisions could have more than one cluster box location, Clark said. His understanding from the postal service is that they can, but he didn’t know of any specific threshold for adding a second or third.